Cutting Agricultural Legislation
and Electronic ID Tags (EID)
July 2011
The recommendations made by the Farming Regulation Task Force to cut red tape in agriculture were presented to minister Jim Paice on 17th May by the task force Chairman, Richard MacDonald.
DEFRA has already started work on cutting red tape. Mr Paice has outlined a number of areas where immediate action / changes could be made including improving record-keeping on Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and simplifying reports on livestock movements. There were 214 recommendations in all, including
:
• Simplifying and removing duplication to animal welfare inspections
• Improving record-keeping on farms in Nitrates Vulnerable Zones - for example by exempting
keeping requirements;
• Changing aspects of the six-day standstill arrangements so that they will no longer apply to animals moving directly between farms
• Rationalising the allocation of County Parish Holding (CPH) numbers, so that the same rules apply to all species
• Moving away from paper-based movement reporting for sheep, through the introduction of an industry-owned database
• Abolishing the Cattle Tracing System (CTS) links and Sole Occupancy Agreements (SOAs), which provide specific exemptions to movement reporting and six-day standstills for farm animals, but add unnecessary complications to an already complex system.
Encouragingly, the issue of EID (Electronic Identification Tags) has been raised in the recommendations and instead of shying away from what is perhaps one of the most complicated/confusing regulations we work with Mr Paice commented that "There are issues like EID tags which are at a European level and will obviously take longer to address, but I have challenged senior DEFRA officials to be bold as we look at how to implement the recommendations."
Whilst it is unlikely the government will be able to act on all 214 proposals, it is encouraging that work has begun so quickly at implementing change.
DEFRA will publish an initial response to the taskforce's report in the autumn, before producing a final response next year.
Cattle Ear Tags, Sheep Ear tags, Pig Ear Tags or Electronic Identification Tags (EID Tags)
If you need advice regarding Cattle Ear Tags, Sheep Ear tags, Pig Ear Tags or Electronic Identification Tags (EID Tags) on your farm why not send us a quick email?
Outstanding 2010 SPS Claims
April 2011
As of 19th April 2011, 4,800 applications with a total claim value of £170 million remain unpaid. RPA
have confirmed that with the exception of legal/probate/inspections (not all) they expect to
settle all claims for 2010 submissions by their deadline of June 30th 2011.
RPA confirm that at least 70% of the outstanding claims for 2010 have been affected by
entitlement transfer issues.
Cross Compliance Breaches
The current value of all cross compliance reductions made under the Single Payment Scheme in 2010
is £2,072,620.
In 2010, the percentage of holdings found at inspection to have cattle identification breaches was
reduced to 44.6%, down from a high of 51.2% the year before.
There was also a notable reduction in breaches under the animal welfare SMR, thanks to better
record keeping in terms of medicines and mortalities.
There was a general increase in failures under the GAECs, particularly due to farmers not completing
the Soil Protection Review. A number of farmers were also found to have breached the new water
abstraction GAEC. There was also an increase in failures under the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones SMR
due to farmers not following the new rules.
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